Google brings Street View to Windows Mobile and S60

But no pictures of Blighty as yet

Posted in Mobile, 11th December 2008 18:05 GMT

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Google's latest version of mobile mapping software finally brings Street View to mobile phones - excepting the iPhone, which gained that capability when the iPhone 2.2 Software Update was released on November 21.

It's a little hit-and-miss to access a Street View image, as you need to select the place you're interested in seeing and hope Google's street-shooting fleet has passed by. But once located, the photographs replicate the desktop experience perfectly adequately.

Version 2.3 also provides directions for those walking - showing Google can think outside California - plus links to the on-device address book so it's easy to see where a contact is based and get directions to their office. If that office is in one of the many bits of America which have been photographed, or Lille, Paris or one of the fragments of southern France already covered, then you'll be able to get a picture of it as well - but the rest of Europe will have to wait.

With Google handing out such services for free it's getting harder to see how commercial services are going to survive. Alhough nothing beats a dedicated GPS kit for in-car navigation, Google's consistent improvements make Mobile Maps an increasingly essential mobile application. ®

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